St Petroc's Parish Church, Bodmin, Cornwall

Menu

Uncategorized

Two or three years ago a woman named Kim Baldacchino contacted our daughter, Leslie, as both of them were involved with researching our project’s surname. Somewhere along the way, Kim and I started communicating and I shared with her our findings through visits to the UK over the years; my love of Bodmin, Cornwall (which we visited first in 1995) as the place I felt had my “family” church; how we found the Eastlake Farm in Devon, quite by accident, in 2010, and shared with her our research into Samuel Eastlick who was transported in 1723 to Annapolis (we held his court records in our hands on one of our stops in London); and that we could not connect my most distant ancestor, Alexander Eastlick, to Great Britain since we have been unable to document his birth and parents.

In May 2013 when we made our trip to Great Britain, we contacted Kim and told her we were going to be in the area for about a month and would love to meet her. She met us in Bratton Clovelly, the little community in Devon we had been visiting to take pictures for a friend in 2010 when we accidentally drove by the Eastlake Farm, saw the sign and stopped to visit with the current owners. On the agreed upon morning we met her in front of the Inn in Bratton Clovelly and we spent the morning at the nearby Community Center sharing information and getting acquainted. I felt like we had been friends forever, and with a lot of laughter and stories, we learned about her family and her life in the UK and also the research she had been doing with the Guild of One-Name Studies. She also shared that she was now going to do a One-Place Study about the Bratton parish (which would include the Eastlake area).

On a side note, she had invited the local post mistress of Bratton Clovelly, who had recently retired after being the post mistress all of her life following upon her father who had been post master before her. She and her husband met us at the Inn and we had a wonderful time learning about the area and of course they were well aware of the Eastlake Farm and knew the current owners…it is a small area and reminded me of Scott Valley, California, where I grew up…everyone knows everyone!

Kim is originally from the United States and a descendent of Francis Estlack from Bermuda and New Jersey. Her work is well documented and very informative. What fascinated and thrilled me was that her research supported our own as we had also documented Robart in Bodmin in the 1500’s, Thomas, the mayor of Penzance, Eastlakes in Pymouth, and we found many with the spelling of Eastlick in London prior to the 1700’s including Samuel Jr. and his father, Samuel Sr., who charged him with the felony for which he was transported. Up to the time of finding the Eastlake Farm, I was convinced that the name came from Cornwall (based on the earliest church records) but now I need to say “through Cornwall” as the documentation dating back to the 1200’s certainly appears to place our name beginnings in Devon. If we can find the book that documents Robart’s traveling across the River Tamar to Bodmin we can be certain.

I encourage all who are interested in the Eastlake, Eastlick, Easlick, Estlick, Eslick name to go to Kim’s article reporting on her One Name Project at this link: (copy and paste the link)

The days fly by and I am derelict in posting because we were enjoying Bodmin, and then moved on to Clowance Estates near Praze-an-Beeble, visting friends and staying in doors on a couple of days due to the heavy rain and wind. When you leave A30 in Cornwall, the roads are often very narrow and even only wide enough for one car, and there are unexpected tractors and other farm equipment so rainy driving isn’t great fun. We had seen most of the tourist sites in past trips, so we mostly like to talk with folks in the pubs, visit friends made before, and just enjoy being here…when not visiting a research center. We have found about 20 people in the phone book, mostly with the spelling ESTLICK, but some other variant spellings. We are going to stop by a store in Troon to see if we can find one of the families but we have discovered that most do not trace their families back beyond the first census in the 1800’s. Way too late for our connection. I believe DNA will show we all have a common ancestor but finding that link to Devon and Cornwall will remain very difficult. I am just grateful that I have experienced the discoveries that I have in Cornwall, Devon and London and even if you are not into genealogy it is really LOVELY to visit this country, so like our own but so different. Just wish it would stop raining for a few days!

Today we went to Truro to renew my subscription to the Cornwall Family History Society. I had let it lapse since our visit in 2010 but they had all my info and i could keep my long held number. We went to the small alley of their location in past years, only to find they have moved. They are now at 18 Lemon Street close to the parking lot we usually use (through Lemon Street Market) and very near Mannings, a favorite restaurant. The new location is beautiful with a large table near the reference books in the library, and several computers for online research in a separate room. The volunteers are friendly and helpful and although nothing new was discovered from our previous visits, it was satisfying to be there and to talk with fellow genealogists! We had hoped to attend their Spring Meeting on Saturday but there were no lectures and it was only a tour of Lanhydrock House, which we have gone to several times on previous trips, so we decided to continue on our own research. I would encourage members of the Eastlick Name Project to consider joining the Cornwall Family History Society…they are digitizing more and more of their material. We will be going to Heritage House in Devon in a couple weeks and will probably join their group as well.